Swordplay
by GetWithIt
Summary: SI/OC-insert as Ichigo... Well, not entirely. Mikazuki isn't quite sure how she ended up as a sword-spirit, but she isn't one to dwell on might-have-beens.
1. Beyond Normal

_**A/N: **This is about an eighteen year old girl who dies and is reincarnated as Ichigo. The catch is that the part that remembers this and maintains its original mindset is the zanpakuto spirit, not Ichigo himself._

* * *

Kurosaki Ichigo isn't normal.

(~)

_"Ichigo? Who are you talking to?" The six year old startles and turns around to find his father behind him. _

_Ichigo, too young to see the considering look in Isshin's eyes or the tenseness to his shoulders, smiles broadly in response. "The obaa-san from across the street," he says, as if the answer should be obvious. The petite, elderly woman stands just beside him, her white hair pulled into a neat bun and her favorite shall draped over her shoulders. "Mom said she went away, but she didn't," he tells his dad. "She's right here!" He gestures to the woman in question and then looks back at his dad. "Why'd Mom think she left?"_

_Isshin sighs and rubs the back of his neck uncomfortably. "I'm sure she was just confused," he says after a long moment. "Nakahara-san is moving away soon. You're Mom probably got the dates mixed up."_

_Ichigo nods uncertainly. He doesn't know why both his dad and the obaa-san from across the street look so sad all of a sudden. He says goodbye to his obaa-san and wishes her luck on her move. She says goodbye back and wishes him luck at school in turn. Then, he turns and follows his dad inside for dinner._

_"Come on son, let's go help your mother set the table," Isshin announces with forced cheerfulness as soon as the door shuts behind them. Ichigo knows something is wrong, knows something is making his father sad, suspects he has something to do with it, but in the end, he's only six and he doesn't know how to fix things, not yet. Fortunately, he knows someone who does._

_"Mom!" Ichigo calls. "Come fix your husband - he's being weird!"_

_Isshin splutters, "What - Ichigo!"_

_Masaki enters before the man can articulate whatever it is he wants to say in response. She has a dish towel over one shoulder and flour smeared across her cheek. She's smiling cheerfully at them both and Ichigo doesn't waste anymore time worrying about his dad. His Mom makes _everything_ better._

(~)

He's never quite fit in. Talking to ghosts no one else can see didn't really endear him to his peers in his youth and doing so as he gets older casts him as some sort of freak. People who look beyond his quirks and see him for who he his are rare, so Ichigo learns very early on to appreciate the few who do.

When his mother dies, he tries to shut them out. If he doesn't have friends, he won't have to feel the pain of their loss when they inevitably leave him. He really doesn't think he can handle something like that a second time - not when his mother's death is still tearing him up inside.

(~)

_"Mom? Mom! __Wake up! MOM!"_

(~)

Tatsuki changes his mind pretty quickly. All it take is eye contact with his first friend for his resolve to crumble. Just the thought of pushing her away, of not being there to protect her, sends a chill down Ichigo's spine. Rather than giving her the cold shoulder, as he'd originally planned, the sight of his friend gives him a new resolution. He decides to protect her, like he wants to protect his sisters. Ichigo knows he's not strong enough, not just then, but _he will be_. He'll make it so he never has to lose anyone again. If he has to widen the circle under his protection to do that, he will. If he has to become stronger than anyone else, he will.

Because losing his Mom was too steep a price for being weak. So Ichigo won't be weak. He won't _allow _himself to be weak. Not again.

(~)

_Ichigo is still grieving, but it's been a little over a month since he decided to get stronger and he has no plans to back down. He trains at the dojo, picks fights with bullies, and cares for his sisters in his free time. All this keeps him too busy to dwell very long on negative emotions. Lately, he's been so exhausted that he doesn't even dream after crawling into bed each night._

_That's probably why he's so surprised to find himself on a rooftop overlooking a deserted city. The last thing Ichigo remembers is settling in for bed, so it _must _be a dream, even if it doesn't feel like one._

_"So you've finally decided to pay me a visit?" A female voice asks, sounding amused._

_Ichigo spins around, freezing when he catches sight of the figure. A young woman in her mid to late teens is casually seated on the edge of the rooftop with a frankly enormous blade propped beside her. Dark, golden blonde hair cut in an angled bob obscures her face until she shakes it back, revealing the most intense pair of eyes Ichigo has ever seen._

_"Who are you?" Ichigo finds himself asking._

_The girl laughs brightly. "I'm your partner silly," she says before gesturing around them. "Welcome to your soul."_

(~)

It's a good thing Ichigo thinks being normal is so overrated. Otherwise, he'd have a serious problem on his hands.


	2. Half-Life

_**A/N: **Chapter 2 of Swordplay. Expect much longer chapters from here on out._

* * *

"_Ichigo…"_

Groaning, the thirteen year old clamps his hands over his ears and resolutely ignores the female voice calling for him.

"_Ichigo…"_

Ichigo scowls and glances around for a distraction.

"_ICHIGO! Stop ignoring me!"_

The enraged shout echoes in his skull and he sighs in resignation. "Fine, fine… Just hold on a second would you?" Taking the silence that follows for acceptance, Ichigo scribbles the final answer to his homework down and stands from his desk.

From the safety of the boy's mindscape, Mika grins smugly. Though Ichigo often acts like her presence is a pain, they have a close relationship. It isn't all that surprising, considering she lives in his head, or more accurately, his soul.

She waits patiently for the boy to pack up his school things and get ready for bed. There's no need to antagonize him further, not when he's already agreed to speak with her. As much as Mika hates to admit it, she's lonely – Ichigo's brief visits are about all that get her through the days. It isn't very exciting watching a preteen boy live his life, unable to interact with others.

Shortly after turning out his light, Ichigo flops down on his bed and closes his eyes in concentration. A split second later, he appears in his mindscape. Mika stops concentrating on the outside world, instead refocusing on her own surroundings.

She's sitting cross-legged on the same rooftop they always meet on – the one that stands taller than all the others. Ichigo is standing across from her, dressed in his pajamas and looking mildly grumpy.

"Hey, little guy," Mika says with a bright smile as she motions for her partner to join her. The younger teen rolls his eyes at the nickname, but sits down all the same. "Anything you'd like to talk about today?" She asks, once they're both settled.

It's fairly routine for them to start out this way. While Mika can witness the boy's life secondhand and discern his emotions if she concentrates, his thoughts and opinions are his own.

"No, not today," Ichigo says after a moment's thought. "To tell you the truth, I'm kind of beat."

Mika nods her understanding. "I'm not surprised. That science project has been keeping you up pretty late each night – I'm glad you've finally finished."

"Yeah, me too," he agrees easily before stretching out on his back. "You don't mind if I go to sleep do you?"

Mika smiles. "Not at all."

The thirteen year old shifts so that his head lands in her lap and closes his eyes, dropping into a light doze almost immediately.

This too is routine.

Mika doesn't say a word. Instead, she starts threading her fingers through his short, vibrant hair. She doesn't mind that he sleeps through the majority of their nightly visits, he's still young after all. Mostly, the older teen's just happy to be able to interact with someone else – to be seen, heard, _felt…_

Mika supposes she should be grateful and for the most part, she is. Any existence is better than none; even if it doesn't always feel that way.

Sometimes, when she thinks about her new life, she laughs. It's hard not to. Memories of her first life are hazy and dreamlike, but she remembers thinking about what came after death a time or two. She'd imagined heaven, maybe, or nothing at all.

Reincarnation had been a surprise, especially when she found out about the circumstances of her rebirth.

'_I'm a sword,' _she remembers thinking. _'Oh god, I'm a sword spirit in an anime I never finished watching.' _She'd been so hysterical that first day she came into awareness. So much so that she'd entered a strange state of calm. In hindsight, Mika realizes this was probably a good thing. She resides in the very heart of his soul and can influence him on a subconscious level. Coming to terms with her death and continued existence had been difficult enough. She doesn't know what she would have done if a tantrum or panicked reaction had negatively affected Ichigo. The boy had already been in a bad way after the death of his mother. Had her hysteria hurt him – the boy she considers a brother – Mika doubts she would have ever forgiven herself.

Ichigo stirs a little in his sleep, shaking Mika from her thoughts. A quick check to the outside world tells her it's only Isshin tucking his son in and brushing a palm against her partner's forehead.

Mika likes Isshin. Even though his relationship with Ichigo is occasionally strained and often awkward, she knows the man loves his son.

'_You're a lucky boy Ichigo,'_ she thinks with a fond smile. _'Between me, your dad, your sisters, and your friends – you'll never be alone.'_

It's almost enough to make her jealous.


	3. Senses

Sometimes, Mika wonders if she's actually in an anime. It's hard not to, despite the eerie similarities. For one, her surroundings are vibrant and real - nothing at all like the two-dimensional images she remembers. For another, the people have _depth. _In Ichigo's small family, she's seen multitudes more of their personalities and idiosyncrasies than the sixty-odd episodes she watched ever revealed.

Still, ghosts and hollows exist, so she can't completely dismiss the theory.

Not that it matters all that much in the long run. Mika's quite sure she and Ichigo will muck up whatever plot he was supposed to follow (if her mere existence hasn't done so already). It's not like she minds, either. The idea that the future is set in stone - that everyone's choices are unavoidable and certain outcomes inevitable... Well, it's not something she likes to consider.

"Are you ready Mika?" Ichigo's form materializes in his soulscape, only a few feet away from her.

What they're about to try is incredibly reckless and will almost certainly change things for the future. It's the main reason why Mika finds her thoughts drifting toward the concept of fate and her memories of what-should-be.

"...Yeah, I'm ready."

Ichigo nods and disappears, leaving Mika alone on the rooftop. His part in this little experiment is relatively simple, if challenging: all he has to do is meditate, suppressing conscious thought until he feels like an observer in his own body. Once he does that, Mika will project her conscious as far as she can in an attempt to take over his body.

It sounds ominous, but she's checked with Ichigo literally hundreds of times and he still wants to go through with it. He's too selfless by half. _'No time to worry about it now,' _Mika decides. Then, without further delay, the teen who's not really a teen closes her eyes and concentrates on her partner's presence. He's a flame in her mind's eye - sometimes flaring, sometimes waning, but never extinguished.

At this point in their little test he's managed to reign himself in to the point that he's barely more than a low-burning candle, only slightly larger than his presence while he sleeps.

_'It's now or never.' _

She gathers everything she has and shoves her awareness up, up, _UP_! _There!_ "Ah," she draws in a soft, gasping breath. The air feels thick and cumbersome to her senses; it's also the most wonderful thing she's ever felt. "Huh," she breathes out. The action, for all that she does it in Ichigo's soulscape, is so very different in the real world. There's a weight to the simple act of breathing that she's forgotten about ('_These are my lungs, taking in oxygen so I can live, live, live' _\- she cuts the semi-hysterical thought off).

Mika wants, more than anything, to start moving and touching things the way she hasn't been able to in years, but manages to restrain herself. _'Ichigo? It worked - do you want to switch back?' _

He takes a long moment to reply, but when he does, he's incredulous. '_What? Now?' _Mika imagines him rolling his eyes. _'We've spent months practicing and meditating and you want to switch back before you've even done _anything_? I don't think so. You can feel it too, right? How easy it would be to go back to our regular roles?'_

_'I can,' _she confirms.

_'Then there's absolutely no reason to worry. Go out, see the world. I'll just check things out in here.'_

_'If you're sure...' _Ichigo makes a wordless noise of frustration in response, but Mika is too excited to care. She's _real _again_. _And Ichigo's just given her permission to go out and explore the world with his senses. She stands up slowly, absently noting that Ichigo seems to relax into their soul once she does so, satisfied that she's making use of her time in control.

It's a little awkward at first, Ichigo has a prepubescent boy's body and Mika's rusty enough that her own body would be unwieldy, but she makes do. Soon enough she's circling his bedroom, trailing fingers over anything and everything within reach. She spends almost an hour in his room, just moving around and lifting things up, but it's time well spent. By the time she decides to move on to the rest of the house, she's a pro at navigating Ichigo's body.

"Ichi-nii?" Karin is the first to spot her. "What are you doing?"

Mika feels an unrestrained smile bloom on Ichigo's - _her_ \- face. "I'm about to go for a walk," she says. _'Oi. Don't go ruining my image.' _ It's a half-hearted protest at best and she knows it. "Would you like to join me?"

Karin shakes her head. "I've got homework," she says. "Yuzu's already done hers, if you want to ask her."

"I'll do that," Mika announces. She smiles again, more subdued this time, before continuing downstairs. It's _amazing_, being able to move and talk and touch things.

She finds Yuzu at the kitchen table, sketching pictures into her notebook. "That's impressive," Mika notes aloud, nodding to the drawing of the girl's late mother. Yuzu blushes in response and stammers something modest. "If you don't mind taking a break, I'd love it if you came with me on a walk...?"

Yuzu jumps at the chance, noticing, but not commenting on the out-of-character manner her 'big brother' is displaying. The little girl takes Mika's - _Ichigo's _\- hand with obvious excitement before practically dragging them outside. Mika can feel Ichigo's guilt in response. _'Hey,'_ she directs inwards. _'Don't go feeling bad - all younger siblings are this excited when older siblings give them the time of day.' _She shoves some memories of her own younger siblings his way. _'Just because you don't always have time to play doesn't mean you're a bad brother; if anything, you're one of the best.'_

_'...Thanks.'_


End file.
